Blue.Berries.

After baking up a storm for my Church event, I had a few left over ingredients.

The possibilities of what to do with them were endless, but I settled with Blueberry Cake.

I didn't have the right tin for baking in so I compromised which meant a massively increased baking time, but I'm pretty sure it tasted the same as it would have, had I had a beautiful bundt tin, as specified.

The end result was a cake about 10cm tall with lots of sunken blueberries...

Blueberry Cake :: adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery

Ingredients
350g unsalted butter, at room temperature
350g caster sugar
6 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract 450g plain flour
2 tbsp + 2 tsp baking powder (yep, you read that right)
280ml creme fraiche
250g blueberries

1 :: Preheat the oven to 170C / Gas mark 3 / 325F. Grease and line a 9 " round tin, or a
10" / 25cm bundt tin

2 :: In a large mixing bowl (or freestanding mixture if you are blessed with one of these beauties), beat the butter and sugar until creamy, light & fluffy

3 :: Add the eggs, 1 at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl when necessary.

4 :: Beat in the vanilla extract, flour and baking powder until it's all mixed together.

5 :: Stir in the creme fraiche by hand until combined.

6 :: Gently stir in the blueberries by hand (so they don't get crushed) until they've spread evenly througout the mixture.

7 :: Scrape the mixture into your prepared tin and bake for 1hr 40mins if using a 9" round tin.
If using a bundt tin, bake for 40 mins.

Tip: If using a 9" round tin, cover the cake with greaseproof paper after 40 mins to prevent the top from browning too much.

8 :: Remove the cake from the oven once it's baked, and leave to cool slightly before removing it from the tin. Turn out onto a wire cooling rack and leave until completely cooled before icing.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients
300g icing sugar, sifted
50g unsalted butter, at room temperature
125g cream cheese at room temperature

It's very important to have the butter and cream cheese at room temperature if you want to avoid lumpy frosting / icing.

It takes roughly an hour for them to come up to room temperature.

Alternatively, if you haven't got an hour, you can put them in the microwave on a low power setting and blast for a few seconds.

1 :: Beat the icing sugar into the butter, adding a little sugar at a time to avoid create a huge sugar cloud and covering yourself in the sweet dust.

2 :: Beat in the cream cheese until everything's combined. Keep beating for another 5 mins to make it light and fluffy.

3 :: Cover your cake in the frosting / icing, adding little flicks here and there if you so which to add a bit of character.

4 :: Eat Cake.

Side note
Frosting or Icing?
Well, the thing is, I've grown up calling the sweet stuff on top of cakes 'icing'. However, a lot of recipes call it 'frosting.' I like the sound of frosting more than icing - it suggests something a little bit more. With this recipe, the creators of it call it frosting, so I wouldn't want to take that away from them, but thought I should include the word 'icing' too, to save confusion, and to pacify my wonderful boyfriend who's slightly concerned about me using Americanisms, what with me being British, and all.

Cake Count :: 455